Stealing Deep Purple
The unbelievable true story of the Fake Deep Purple tour
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Steve McLean is a comedian and writer from Scotland, currently living in London.
His trilogy of shows based on merchandise (Action Figure Archive, Action Figure Archive Volume 2 and Action Figure Archive Retrosexual) made multiple top ten lists and toured internationally.
His favourite Deep Purple album is Come Taste the Band. He knows this will win him no favours among the hardcore.
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In 1980, greed was good and you could get away with stealing just about anything, even a band name. At the end of the 1970s, Rod Evans, the little known original singer of Deep Purple decided to relaunch the classic rock band for a continental American tour. The only problem was that Evans reformed the…
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By the time the New Deep Purple were due to play the Long Beach Arena in LA, the officials of the actual band had begun to move legally. Tony Edwards and John Coletta, of the management company HEC, found the US courts too slow, partly because the duo themselves were not very quick to act.…
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One of the reasons why The New Deep Purple were allowed to exist is that frankly, the industry didn’t really care who was in the band. When it became more widely known that Deep Purple weren’t in face Deep Purple, then there was a lot of ‘faux’ outrage from the venues and promoters. However, ultimately,…
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The New Deep Purple often performed on what were known to promoters as ‘soft seaters.’ These are events that would attract a generic crowd rather than a hardcore Deep Purple fan base. Things like County Fairs or Tractor Pull events. The name Deep Purple, regardless if it was prefixed with ‘New’ or ‘featuring Rod Evans’…
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There’s a nice review of Stealing Deep Purple at this website (Steve Mclean takes a pretty neutral stance towards the whole ordeal, and this is what makes the book so good) https://adamscdgallery.blogspot.com/2025/11/a-look-at-stealing-deep-purple-by-steve.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawOHSgxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyCGNhbGxzaXRlAjMwAAEe6Hko-qc00qHTBtIu9XfJtagxUn_S1JUJsrSwi4qM9m6P4UOFRHy8jrz_E8w_aem_5bqo7ZHDD1c37erV0b5kYg
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The story of the fake Frankie has been published over at the New Vinyl Villain. Get a cuppa, sit down, read and RELAX https://thenewvinylvillain.com/2025/11/12/more-stealing-the-guest-series-in-book-form-8-frankie-goes-to-hollywood/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOC4ftleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe8McYEPauqGJxjIumjB8-Ok8Nn6aOkHuA_xY6yeHLDRNHGvve5Gp9CA8rUIQ_aem_0YWie9xtirjYw4GpgqsC1Q
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New Vinyl Villain have posted my blog about Steppenwolf. The band featured THREE future members of The New Deep Purple… And various other musicians, some of whom became notable in the 1980s The Steppenwolf name was still getting misused as late as 2019….. https://thenewvinylvillain.com/2025/10/29/more-stealing-the-guest-series-in-book-form-7-steppenwolf/
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NVV Have once again allowed me to write a blog for them! Thanks Jim. Here’s the story of the Byrds, after the Byrds broke up! 🙂
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There’s been much speculation over whose idea the New Deep Purple tour was. I examine all the possible candidates in my book. One name that is prominent is that of keyboard player and graduate attorney Geoff Emery. (Also know as Jeff Emery, Geoffrey Emery, Geoffrey Emer and Geoffrey England) Emery had been in a few…
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Thank you very much to Tim for hosting me on his podcast.
About
Welcome to the world of the 1980 Fake Deep Purple tour. Here I will share things that I researched while writing this book.
I’ll include full versions of interviews I conducted and any quotes given to me by people involved in the tour, plus any visual media that I happen across.
Stealing Deep Purple 